The rise of the public sphere, as chronicled by social movements spanning the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries

Workers of the World, Enjoy!

Aesthetic Politics from Revolutionary Syndicalism to the Global Justice Movement

Search the full text of this book

Kenneth H. Tucker, Jr.

"Tucker reconsiders the sociology of the public sphere by viewing it through the lens of performativity. Such a perspective highlights the ways that public spheres ‘aestheticize’ daily life and make possible new forms of subjectivity and collective life. What is especially impressive about this book is that Tucker develops his ideas at both an analytical and empirical level. The notions of the public sphere and civil society are today integral to debates about democracy and social change in both the academe and among activists. Tucker offers an original statement that is both compelling and important."Steven Seidman, SUNY Albany

The aesthetic politics of social movements turn public life into a public stage, where mutual displays of performance often trump rational debate, and urban streets become sites of festivals and carnival. In his penetrating book, Workers of the World, Enjoy!, Kenneth Tucker provides a new model for understanding social change in our image-saturated and aesthetically charged world. As emotional and artistic images inform our perceptions and evaluation of politics, art and performance often provide new and creative ways of understanding self and society.

Spanning the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, Workers of the World, Enjoy! uses examples from major social movements that have dramatically changed the dominant capitalist society—often in the name of labor. Tucker investigates how class and culture develop as he raises questions about what it means for public life and social movements when politics and drama come together.

Tucker catalogues how aesthetic politics influences social movements—from French Revolutionary syndicalism and fascism to the selling of the President and the street theater of the contemporary global justice movement. He also discusses the work of political theorists including Jurgen Habermas, Jeffrey Alexander, and Nancy Fraser to critique the ways public sphere has been studied.

Excerpt

Reviews

"This major study of aesthetic politics is a strong reminder of the degree to which aesthetic imagery and practices are widespread in contemporary social movements. This study offers some brilliant and provocative insights for scholars and students concerned with the public sphere.... An important contribution to debates about democratic space and social change. Summing Up: Recommended."CHOICE

"This book is built with considerable erudition.... This is an ambitious and exciting book that navigates the intersection between cultural sociology and the new social movements scholarship based on the author’s expertise in French syndicalism, popular culture in the United States and social movements....[It] is a welcome addition to a growing library of volumes that connect the performative and aesthetic character of public life to social and political transformations." Contemporary Sociology

"Tucker provides new insight into the global justice movement, discussing the role that imagery and carnival traditions play in public displays of global justice activists.... Tucker is doing something important with his book – attempting to integrate postmodern theory (which is often underemphasized in sociological research) into the study of social movements...His book is a great read for scholars and actors interested in the ways in which postmodern theories can be incorporated into
sociological research." Social Movement Studies

Contents

Part I. Theoretical Reflections1. Public Life, Aesthetics, and Social Theory
2. Social Movements and Aesthetic Politics
3. Identity, Knowledge, Solidarity, and Aesthetic Politics

Part II. History and Social Movements4. The World Is a Stage and Life Is a Carnival: The Rise of the Aesthetic Sphere and Pop u lar Culture5. Labor and Aesthetic Politics: French Revolutionary Syndicalism, the IWW, and Fascism6. The Flowering of Aesthetic Politics: May 1968, the New Social Movements, and the Global Justice Movement

About the Author(s)

Kenneth H. Tucker, Jr. is Professor of Sociology at Mount Holyoke College, and author of Classical Social Theory: A Contemporary Approach, Anthony Giddens and Modern Social Theory, French Revolutionary Syndicalism and the Public Sphere, and (with Barbara Tucker) Industrializing Antebellum America.

Subject Categories

In the series

This series will disseminate serious works that analyze the social changes that have transformed our world during the twentieth century and beyond. The main topics to be addressed include international migration; human rights; the political uses of history; the past and future of the nation-state; decolonization and the legacy of imperialism; and global inequality. The series will also translate into English outstanding works by scholars writing in other languages.